It was in the early 1990's, there were three of us and we were all quite young and new to wedding photography in general.

After booking our space at the venue, we realised that we knew nothing about wedding fairs (or fayres). We just turned up with:

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Two complete wedding albums

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An old wallpapering easel covered with a velvet backdrop

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A couple of bouquets

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Bags of confidence

...boy were we in for a surprise!

As we turned up to get our pitch ready you could hear our hearts stopping one by one. There were professional photographers everywhere. They had models, assistants, floor-to-ceiling canvas prints, dresses, make-up artists, cameras, computers and all manner of cool stuff!

Our first and very childish reaction was to get out of there. We dumped our gear at "our patch" and went outside.

How do we compete with that!!!

Finally, we went back in, set up the stall with the deep burgundy backdrop and laid out the albums and flowers. Not too bad and our portfolio was, at the time (and for beginners), quite nice.

We then sent the cheekiest looking one of us to the entrance door to welcome visitors and usher them over to our small but humble stall. People seemed to warm to this and were impressed by our cheerful attitude, "ample" talents and humble approach. We started getting bookings!

At the end of the show, a couple of other photographers actually approached us and asked how we did it? Many had received barely any bookings. A great lesson learned this time and one I always try to adhere to now. Stay humble.

Don’t be put off by thinking that you are not good enough or big enough to attend these shows. One thing I have learned along the way is that it is horses for courses in wedding photography. Not all couples want the cheap, lower end of the scale and not all want the high end, flashy photographers either. There is work for all!